Tennis is a wonderful and unique sport, no doubt about it. What makes tennis unique is not the interesting gameplay it offers or the massive following it commands, this racket-ball sport is one-of-its-kind because of the speed at which it adopts new-age technologies, such as AI in Wimbledon this year.

To ensure that the sport is the best it can be, Wimbledon, the world’s oldest and most followed tennis tournament, has IBM onboard as its technology partner. Each year, IBM introduces several new utilities that redefine the way tennis is enjoyed. Last year, we saw tools that were focussed on big data analytics to track player performance and predict match results. This year, however, has been on a whole new realm. We recently saw AI in Wimbledon make headlines all over the web.

IBM used automated data analytics using their famous AI, IBM Watson. Let’s look at what artificial intelligence and analytics did to make the Wimbledon tournament better for both players and spectators this year.

AI in Wimbledon: Making Tennis Smarter

As evident from the image above, there were two trending technologies that IBM adopted this year to make the tournament a success. The first one, big data analytics, was basically an upgrade to last year’s initiative. While Wimbledon 2017’s approach was to analyze player stats and match highlights to determine the best players in each form of the game, this year IBM Watson, which is an AI and the second technology IBM used, took this to a whole new level.

The insights that IBM Watson gained over a period of 13 days were not only used to determine player performances, they also became the building blocks of 2 major innovations in the field of tennis: The Messenger Bot Ask Fred and Power Highlights. The image above clearly depicts the way these two technological marvels made tennis a better experience for both spectators and players.

It is quite evident that tennis is one of the few sports that has a very open perception with regard to adopting new technologies. We’re sure that IBM will bring in even better utilities in the coming years from its post as Wimbledon’s technology partner. Be sure to keep an eye out for them.